Thoroughbred horse racing can't return to the days of secrecy and scandal.

Corporate meeting and party planners everywhere felt the pain of the New York Racing Association last week when journalists who hadn't RSVP'd for its board of directors meeting showed up anyway.

No doubt Emily Post would have been proud when NYRA President and CEO Christopher Kay said, "I guess the question is: I wonder why those people didn't RSVP."

The answer to Mr. Kay's question is that meetings to conduct the public's business should have open doors, as plebeian as that sounds. Neither journalists nor any other member of the public should have to pre-arrange access to such a meeting, whether it's a planning board session in a windowless room in City Hall or a NYRA meeting in the candelabra-lit grand ballroom of the Saratoga National Golf Club.

Given that it took NYRA's Gaming Commission boss and some cattle prods from the Cuomo administration for NYRA to see the error of its protocol, this episode leaves us wondering what NYRA has learned about being a steward of the public's holdings in the last two years of public oversight.

Certainly, Mr. Kay appears to be leading an admirable turnaround, as NYRA's compensation committee acknowledged at that recent directors meeting when it gave him a $559,000 package of salary, raise and bonus. Even though horse racing still operates at a loss, NYRA has a net income of about $14 million, thanks to less-than-expected losses, decreased operating expenses and Aqueduct video lottery terminal income.

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But we wonder what the next NYRA will look like after the state's three-year control ends in 2015. Mr. Kay says he will have a plan in about four months on the future of NYRA, which is expected to return to some sort of private ownership.

NYRA has held the franchise to operate the state's thoroughbred tracks at Aqueduct, Belmont and Saratoga for 59 years. In 2012, after years of scandals and poor management, the state took control of the not-for-profit group. And Gov. Andrew Cuomo found a deal NYRA couldn't refuse, offering to include breeders and NYRA in casino revenues, on top of the share of VLT earnings NYRA already gets.

The public no doubt appreciates the job Mr. Kay and company are doing in turning around NYRA. But the fact remains that the tracks belong to the people of New York, and NYRA is getting more and more of the people's money, thanks to VLT revenues and the promised checks from new casino operations. And let's not forget the occasional bailout to "save racing."

Whether NYRA keeps its franchise through 2033 or another operator is brought in, its business must necessarily remain public. There's precedent for this: Amtrak, as America's national passenger railroad, is a private corporation, yet subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act.